Frühlingserwachen - spring finally seems to have arrived in Germany and Austria...

[LinzerTorte]

... or at least I hope so.

For everyone in Germany and Austria, and anyone else who would like to chat!

Thanks Linzer!

marking my place!! thanks linzer!

Hi! Good idea to start a new thread. Hopefully I'll be able to keep up.

Hi everyone. Wow, it was so cold today! Took dd to the zoo and wrapped us both up in so many layers I was like the michelin man! DD really loved it. Iwas so knackered. Is it just me? There's something really tiring about zoos?

It is actually nice to spend some time alone with her. I guess it doesn't happen much. Coping without my boys. Just.

Had to cope too with dh car. It's a manual and mine's an automatic. He hadn't realised I was insured to drive it, so The 2 1/2 years we've been in Munich I've never driven his maual, now he's nicked off to Austria with my automatic, so I've had no choice. Glad to say it's like riding a bike. I was worried about clutch control and stuff, but thank goodness it's been fine.

SOmeone tell me it's going to warm up at some point?

Is anyone else on school holidays?

Ad, did you have that 2nd dyslexia appt for dd? If so, how'd you/she get on?

Any news from tallpoppies?

Bebe, how's it going in Haar?

Morning. Sunny but freezing again. Ds was sneezing last night and I thought it could be hay fever but dh said how can there be any pollen in this temperature! I only know that we all get hay fever and ds is always first , later dh gets it and then me. Dd is last so we must all react to different pollens.

Ernest, I also find zoo visits exhausting. I suppose you don't realise how far you end up walking as you go round in circles really. Are you going to see the new flat in UK or visiting family?

The dyslexia test is a mystery to me. Dd goes into an upstairs room and does the test, talks to the doc and then they play a game at the end. This will happen 5 times then I will get a meeting with the doc and dd together to hear what they have found out. I think the next test is a sort of IQ test. They already tested dictation and reading.

Off to an annual general meeting of the table tennis club tonight. They will announce the new/revised teams and ds thinks he will be put in a team, then he'll have matches at the weekend against other clubs. He's getting a new bat given aswell (not free, 25?!).

Freezing here again today - I hope it warms up for the Faschingsumzug later. I drove the DC to school as one of DD1's classmates asked me if I could take her two as well, as she thought it would be too cold for them to walk in their Fasching costumes. I think mine would have been dressed warmly enough, but DD2 was embarrassed to walk to school wearing her nurse's hat and I don't think she'd have managed to put it on properly on her own at school, so I may well have ended up driving them anyway!

Ernest We had the Semesterferien a month ago and don't have any more holidays until Easter now.
I found it took me a bit longer to get used to driving a manual again; we had an automatic in the USA and I really wanted an automatic over here, but ended up with a manual for a variety of reasons. Mind you, the fact that I hadn't really driven a manual for about 15 years before we moved to Austria probably didn't help.

admylin The dyslexia test sounds very thorough. I'm wondering whether we should get DD1 tested again - her Legasthenietrainerin said she would redo the test so that we have a certificate for the Gymnasium, but the test she did last time took less than an hour.

yeah we're off too Ernest - but no specific plans!! hope you have a fab time in the UK - what goodies will you bring back?

I've never driven an automatic - wonder whether it would take some getting used to as well?

Freezing here too this morning - minus 4!! i'm bypassing the standing outside Faschingumzug and taking the kids to a Fasching party in the village hall instead! wondering whether i can leave them there and come home for a couple of hours?? Hope you have a fab time at yours Linzer!

So i got the flights booked !!! Booked the Lufthansa ones in the end - they were only 10? more expensive but it means we can all have luggage and i think i can take ds2's booster car seat for when we get to the UK too? But June is a long way off - got loads on before then!

DH got me some petrol last night so off now to get some shopping and to fill up! fuel is so expensive at the mo - its really making me think twice about driving long distances!

Well done on getting the flights booked, Canella! I'm really not looking forward to flying back in the summer as we'll be arriving in Birmingham just before midnight, but I decided it was slightly preferable to changing planes in Germany (and paying more).

DH found that driving an automatic took some getting used to as he kept wanting to change gear, but as I hadn't driven for nearly a decade before we moved to Austria, I found that driving an automatic was a nice easy way of easing me back into driving. (The huge parking spaces, much wider roads and more patient drivers helped too!)

Right, must stop procrastinating and get on with some work.

I know, my tank is half full so it'lllast me another week but then dh will be moaning about the petrol prices! I'm OK though, can do everything on foot and it'll do us good. I'm so lazy at the moment and teh dc have been infected. Everything is within a 10 minute walk (school, shops, sport club, friends) but they want a lift whenever they can get one.

We have automatic too - at first it was strange as I kept wanting to change gears especially at a stop or red light! In Texas we hired a car and we got a VW with gears! All the nephews (all grown up) wanted to have a go!

Oh dear, everyone is so organised again with holidays. I haven't booked a thing. I have thought about it though, the dc do not want to go family visiting - is this maybe a normal thing when they get to a certain age? Anyway, they want to go on a 'real' holiday to a beach so I should try to get something sorted maybe for Easter. We're stuck for summer too as dh is still waiting to find out about his job contract and where we'll be in August.

Same here admylin, we're only a 10 minute walk from school and kindergarten (15-20 minutes into town) but I drive everywhere. At least the DDs walk to school from kindergarten and back to kiga at lunchtime again, but I still don't think they get enough exercise. We'll have to try and get out a bit more once it finally warms up.

It was DH who motivated me to book the flights (despite the fact that he won't be coming to Wales with us in the summer) by discovering that we wouldn't have to pay any tax on the flights if we booked six months (or thereabouts) in advance. We've also booked our annual holiday to Italy, but I only managed to be organised about that because we're going to the same place as we've been to for the last four years and I wanted to make sure we ended up with a decent sized apartment (we were quite late booking last year so ended up with a dark and fairly poky apartment).

Morning all. It's -3 here now. Sunny but soooo cold.

dd at krippe today so I have time to clean, tidy and pack. Will have to do something fun with her after but stumped for ideas, other than swimming which I don't fancy.

I don't think the term organised can be attributed t my holiday planning

Linzer, wow, holidays a month ago then nothing through till easter! That's a long haul. We haven't got organised for any of the holidays coming up, ie easter or summer. Nothing booked at all. I guess it depends what happens with the flat.

I'm getting a builder to look at the flat to give us a quote and see what he says about getting the work done from afar as well as cost, and also going to view another which doesn't need any work doing.

We were hoping to go to England at Easter, but the friend we usually stay with already has other guests arriving when we hoped to go. I´ll have to get in quicker next time.
We´re off to France in the summer - Ile de Re which sounds lovely. We´ll be taking the bikes and I´m hoping the weather will be good enough to use them otherwise I don´t think there`ll be much to do.

Is anyone else making pancakes today? I´ve already got my batter sitting in the fridge for later.

My niece is arriving today for a few days. She´s 15 and lives in Munich and I really can´t understand why she´d rather spend a few days here with nothing to do rather than staying there with her friends with limitless things to do. I would have hated it at her age. Anyway we´re all looking forward to seeing her - I just hope the trains don´t go on strike again on Saturday when she´s meant to head home.

Yes, hupa I'm doing pancakes tonight. How do you have yours? I'm still lemon and sugar but the dc have brownsugar or chocolate on theirs.

I went to ile de re the first time I went to France when I was 15. I stayed with an older pen friend and she took me over to ile de re with a few of her friends and they promptly all stripped off naked to lie on the beach. I was mortified!

Maybe your niece wants some good healthy fresh country air?!

We usually have ours with lemon and sugar. I have bought a jar of nutella for my niece, so thought we could try that for a change. Mind you I´d probably never get the dc back to lemon and sugar once they´ve tried nutella pancakes.

zimtzücker mmmmmm

Am starting to feel very hungry with all this talk of pancakes, so have just had to fetch myself a hobnob! It would definitely be lemon and sugar for me too, but the DC have apricot jam in theirs. Good idea not to introduce your DC to Nutella pancakes hupa - ours have them at friends', but they don't even realise we have Nutella (well, the Lidl equivalent, which I actually prefer) at home.

Good morning!

No holidays here again until Easter, unfortunately. We've booked two weeks in a little house in Denmark close to where we've been before and I'm really looking forward to it.

I've driven an automatic a couple of times and I must say that I prefer a stick shift although I hate driving in general. Ds18 drove alone for the first time yesterday - to the library two towns over. I just handed him the keys and shut off my brain and he got back safe and sound. The hours and hours of driving lessons cost us enough so I suppose he's road-worthy.

Ernest - glad you're enjoying some girl time with your dd, but yes, it's so quiet when the boys are out of the house, isn't it? When mine aren't there I keep expecting them to pop up somewhere. And I also get exhausted at the zoo. Last time we were there I was so tired by the end of the day!

Ad- believe it or not there IS a lot of pollen around now. It starts at the beginning of March and there are about 5 different trees in full bloom now. It suprises me every year when I start waking up with itchy eyes every morning and then I remember.

How is dd's rash? Is it like prickly heat or something or more eczema-like? Does it go away by itself? I know when I get really stressed my hands and feet start to get all itchy. Not fun. The only thing that helps there is hydrocortisone cream, but it has to be used judiciously.

Linzer - I didn't know about the tax thing for early bookings. Does that always apply or only on certain airlines? We usually book our tickets for Canada about 6 months in advance so we can get the flights we want.

Canella - Oooh, still so cold where you are. We've warmed up a bit and the sun has been shining non-stop. Fasching has pretty much been a non-even here now that the kids are older. The 5th and 6th classes at school still dress up. The Abiturienten had a whole week of dressing up every single day so they're done with it.

hupa - I'm making pancakes, bacon and sausages for dinner tonight. With great lashings of maple syrup. My mum used to always make us pancakes on Shrove Tuesday so I like to keep up the tradition.

I have to go and have passport pictures done today. They always turn out so horrible but it doesn't really matter. I need to remember to take my little ruler so he'll get the measurements right. They're usually OK but we had some sent back once for being the wrong size and they keep getting pickier. The application also needs to be signed by a guarantor who's known you for over 2 years and it has to be someone like a doctor or lawyer so dh gets a guy at work to do it.

I guess I should get going now!

westvan I think it was just an offer that Ryanair had on when we booked, although they didn't advertise it; DH just discovered it by chance. We usually pay more in tax than we do for the flights themselves, so it did make it quite a bit cheaper (although by the time we'd paid for our luggage, priority boarding and booking fee, it wasn't amazingly cheap).

Oh, and good luck with the passport photos - I hate having them done too. I hate the entire passport application process, in fact (we also have to get someone to countersign the form), which is even more expensive now that we have to send our applications to Düsseldorf rather than Vienna. At least we get a year off this year, and then have two passports to renew next year.

(Still here!)

Ahh, thanks, Linzer. Yes, the taxes are a killer once it's all added up. We usually fly Air Canada or Lufthansa and end up paying an arm and a leg.

They charge ?75 for an adult passport plus the cost of the photos and the kids and I need to get them renewed every five years so it gets expensive.

I found my ruler. Going to slap on some make-up and actually leave the house now.

I was going to say that ?75 sounds like a bargain, but then read that you have to renew every five years. I have to pay ?160 plus about ?30 for return courier service, but at least I only need to renew every 10 years. The DC need new passports every five years though, which also cost over ?100 plus the ?30 return postage. If I'd known, I would have stopped at two.

Linzer is that for Austrian passports? Or do you all have British and Austrian?

I got German passports for my dc as dh is German by nationality although he speaks worse German than me. I even thought of applying for German nationality when we wer ea student family in south Germany because of the rip off it costs to get UK passports. Anyway, I'm still British!

Westvan, it's a rash that is very itchy and dd makes it bleed sometimes, very dry too. Cortisone helps but I have ran out of the stuff I got in UK. Which do you buy? I got her some Finistil Gel but it's rubbish, probably too weak.

Morning all!

Did everyone have a nice Karneval/Fasching weekend?
Reading through the latest posts it sounds like Fasching is today, have I got that right? Hope everyone celebrating has a lovely time and manages to (somehow) keep warm! We went to watch the Karnevalsumzug with BIL, SIL and niece this weekend in the village they live in and it was great - although I wasn't entirely sure I was still in possession of my toes by the end of it.
It's still brilliant sunshine here in Hessen but absolutely freezing - we decided to go for a picnic on the Rhine yesterday and ended up back in the car where it was nice and warm - not a great success :)

Good tip on the flights - we're hoping to nip over to see my brother in Scotland in the next few months so will have a look for the tax-free flights.

Aren't passports one of the most painful things to pay for?! You know you need one and you wouldn't be without one but 130 quid plus photos just hurts! I was away with work in Oct 2009 and needed a new passport then I got married in Dec 2009 so ended up getting another in Jan with my new name (it was just before we moved over so figured it would be easier to do from the UK and wanted to have changed my name before we moved) so I think within 3 months I had spent almost 300 quid, including getting to & from Liverpool. Ouch! Luckily I managed to get the company to pay for the first passport as it was a work trip I needed it for.

Hope everyone's well! Sorry, I do tend to write essays on here :)

admylin Those are the prices for British passports. The DC are in DH's passport, but I automatically got British passports for them rather than Austrian ones. One of the reasons was that Austrian passports are only valid for two years for children under two, so it made more sense for their first passport to be British and I've just carried on renewing them. It would definitely be far cheaper and easier to get them Austrian passports now, but I just like the idea of them having British ones! It was much easier when we could just take our application into Vienna, though.

Banana I am slightly worried about my toes this afternoon too! My fingers are already getting cracks in them from the cold weather.

DD1 is getting plastic bags ready for this afternoon, to put the sweets into that are thrown from the floats. They also brought a lot of sweets home from school; I was quite surprised to find out how often sweets are given as a reward at school here (and not just at Fasching).